Chair, carved and turned beechwood, stained dark, the seat and back panel caned; the junctions of the frame decorated with shallow-domed brass studs

Of turned and carved beechwood, stained dark. The legs are of sabre form, with a plain, rectangular section, the back uprights rising to a turned section, with spiral turning below a plain-turned section. The seat, which is set slightly lower than the side seat-rails, to allow for a squab cushion, is caned. The back seat-rail is rectangular in section, that at the fron curved on the upper and outer edge. The back is set with a caned panel, between two turned horizontals, set at the top and bottom edge of the spiral-turned sections of the uprights, and two smaller frame uprights. The chair rail is turned, arched in the centre and spiral carved. The top outer corners of the front legs and back uprights and the front faces of the uprights above and below the spiral-turned sections, are set with shallow-domed discs of brass (one missing on the upper left-hand upright). The seat is reinforced underneath, on either side,with and additional fillet (not original) and one leg is reinforced with a metal bracket. The drop-on seat shows modern upholstery.

Given by F. P. Long

Museum negative 74591 shows this on display in Gallery 40 in 1936 as part of a display of Georgian furniture.

This chair, with several other pieces, was on long loan to Aberdeen Art Gallery from 1953-2015.

This chair is of a type known as the 'Trafalgar' chair, named to commemorate Lord Nelson's famous naval victory over the French at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. Trafalgar chairs have a continuous curving line down the back, along the seat rail, over the knee and down the 'Grecian' front leg. The first published design for this type of chair was in a trade catalogue in 1808 (the London Chair-Makers' and Carvers' Book of Prices Supplement) which used the name 'Trafalgar' chair. The form became more widely known when it was illustrated in the monthly periodical Ackermann's Repository in 1809. Ackermann described it as 'of Grecian form', but illustrated another version in 1814 when he described it as 'A Grecian parlour chair, otherwise called Trafalgar'. Naval references on furniture, such as the rope-twist back, had been popular since Nelson's victory in the Battle of the Nile in 1798.

On loan to Provost Skeen's House.

W.20-1934